by Amma Lee
Soon she couldn’t deny that someone was following her because now she was starting to hear footsteps behind her. When she turned a corner, so did the footsteps. She was starting to freak out then and decided to jog. She hadn’t jogged in a long time so the exercise would be good for her she thought as she let out a nervous giggle. When she started jogging, she heard heavy footsteps pounding hard against the pavement. She could deny it no longer, someone was chasing her. She took off running once she decided to come out of denial.
“Stop chasing me!” Wendy yelled without turning around to see who was pursuing her. She knew that turning around would not be good for her. Something stupid would happen and she’d fall on the ground like the people did in the movies when they tried to see who was pursuing them. Once Wendy was a few steps from the campus, she could no longer hear the pounding of footsteps behind her. When she saw people exiting the campus, she stopped and turned around. She didn’t see anybody though. Whoever was chasing her had to be a pro at keeping themselves hidden.
“Are you okay?” A guy’s voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned around and seen two students looking at her worriedly. She smiled and told them a convincing lie.
“Yeah, I haven’t jogged in a while and I have to admit that I’m a little out of shape now.” The boys stared at her for a few moments and shrugged. They must have been wondering why Wendy was running just then. She couldn’t risk telling them the truth because she didn’t want anything to happen to innocent people just because they found out something that they weren’t supposed to. She knew exactly what was happening to her. Her disguise from yesterday had worked, and now she was being followed.
She picked up her pace and jogged to her dorm. She looked around a little bit before she opened the door and ran all the way upstairs to her room.
“We have a problem.” Wendy said once she opened her door. Black was cleaning himself and was shocked when Wendy just busted through the door. He was also a little embarrassed since he was caught at a very sensitive time.
“What’s wrong?” Black asked once his embarrassment had left him.
“My disguise worked and now I think I’m being followed by the person who kidnapped those women. I was just chased here.” Black’s eyes widened at this and he ran over to Wendy.
“Are you alright? Are you sure that you weren’t imagining this?” Wendy frowned at the cat.
“I haven’t been surer about anything in my entire life.” Wendy took in deep breaths and threw her food on the bed. She was tired from running and her chest hurt. Black sat down and placed his head on top of his paws. He always did that when something was troubling him.
“Well this means we don’t have a lot of time.” Black said and stood up. “We have to find these women and have the kidnapper arrested.” Black didn’t think that Wendy would have been recognized with what she was wearing the other day and Black realized that he had made a terrible error. This without doubt made Black more suspicious that Mr. Johnson had hired someone to kidnap the women.
“How are we going to do that without any clues?” Wendy asked growing more worried by the minute. They definitely had to find and save the women before the kidnapper got his hands on her. Black was intelligent, but since he was a cat he wouldn’t be able to save the women and Wendy on his own if she was kidnapped as well.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll think of something.” Wendy blew out air and let out a gasp when she realized that she hadn’t washed her clothes yet and she had nothing to wear tomorrow.
“I forgot that I need to wash, think of something while I’m downstairs. I’ll be back soon.” Wendy walked over to her dirty laundry and picked up the basket. She was happy that the dorms had washers and dryers in there because she didn’t have the heart to go back outside. She exited her room with Black still in his thinking position. She needed Black to figure out a way to locate the women quickly because now things were getting dangerous.
Wendy was glad to see that the washing machine was not occupied because the dorm only had one washer and dryer. Wendy threw her clothes in the washing machine as she thought about how scary things were getting. She knew that she posed some risk to danger because she was a detective, but having it actually happening before her eyes was terrifying. She was lost in thought when out of nowhere someone grabbed her from behind.
“Ah!” Wendy screams were muffled by a large gloved hand. She tried to break free from her assailant, but whoever it was that had Wendy was stronger than her. She squirmed and jerked but it was pointless and before long a rag was shoved in her face and she inhaled something that she knew that she wasn’t supposed to inhale. The rag was soaked with chloroform and she knew that the stuff would knock her out. Just before her eyes closed she heard an unfamiliar voice.
“Sleep well Ms. Business Woman.” With that said, Wendy’s mind went dark.
****
Black was still on the floor thinking about ways to find the women when he realized that Wendy was taking a long time to get back.
“What is keeping her so long?” Black asked and looked towards the door. It never took Wendy this long to wash clothes before so why was it taking her this long now? “Maybe she’s talking to somebody.” Black said and nodded his head. Wendy was well-liked by many people because she was so kind. People often stopped her so that they could speak to her for a little while.
Black jumped onto the bed and relaxed his body. There was so many things that Wendy and Black needed to do and so little time. Once another fifteen minutes had passed, Black started to get worried.
“I need to see what’s taking her so long.” Black said out loud and jumped off of the bed. He had snuck out of the bedroom plenty of times so he knew getting the door opened would be a piece of cake for him. Black pushed a little stool close to the bedroom door and stood on top of it. He worked his paw quickly not wanted to waste any more precious time. Once the door was unlocked, Black used both paws to turn the knob.
“It’s open!” Black said once the door opened a little. He poked his little head out of the door and looked up and down the hall; there were no humans around so he made a break for the stairs. All while he was running, he had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach and it wasn’t because Wendy had forgotten to leave food in his bowl that morning. Black knew that something terrible had happened to Wendy. When Black made it to the laundry room, his fear was brought into reality. Wendy’s clothes were thrown all over the floor and her cellphone was thrown against a wall.
“Wendy!” Black called out hoping that she was in hearing distance. She wasn’t, however, because Black didn’t even hear a faint whimper from her. Black needed a clue and fast because the kidnapper had acted quicker than what Black had planned for. Black walked over to Wendy’s clothes and smelled them. He needed to get Wendy’s scent so that he’d be able to trace her quicker.
“What’s this?” Black said when his nose hit some paper. He looked down to see an envelope on the ground under Wendy’s clothes. Black pushed the envelope away from the clothes and tore it opened. Black’s eyes widened once he saw what had fallen out of it. A few hundred dollars fell out with a note. Black pushed the note opened with his paw and read it.
Thank you for your assistance with taking those women. I know my life will be a lot easier to live with these women gone. As promised, here is the money that is owed to you. I’ll contact you again if I need more work to be done. As far as the women goes, I don’t care what you do with them as long as they’re not in the business world anymore. I cannot have them stealing all of the customers from him because he provides me with the things that I need. I can’t get what I want if he’s not getting a lot of money, can I?
Thanks again,
L.
“Oh my god,” Black said and dropped the letter onto the ground. This handwriting definitely belonged to a woman. “I… I was wrong.” Black said once he realized he’d been watching the wrong person this entire time. This mistake was grand enough to cost the women their
lives. “No!” Black shouted and sniffed Wendy’s clothes again. He saw that a window was opened so he jumped on the washing machine and leapt out of the window.
Black shouldn’t have let Wendy leave by herself once she told him that somebody had chased her. He had a pretty good idea that a man was hired to do the job, but that the real culprit was a woman. He also realized that the look Mr. Johnson had on his face when Wendy was pretending to be doing well in the business world was a look of concern for her well-being. Mr. Johnson was scared for Wendy.
“I have to hurry,” Black estimated that the two of them wouldn’t have gone that far, but nine times out of ten the assailant probably took her in a vehicle. “This would be a great time to have one of those hyperactive beasts with me.” Black said as a picture of a dog ran across his mind. Dogs were definitely better than cats when it came to sniffing out someone’s scent. Black shook his head in agitation. This was not the time to be worrying about that. He needed to be focused because following a scent when the individual was in a vehicle was hard.
“I can do this” Black said and picked up his pace. Wendy was his everything and he wasn’t going to have some jealous monster do anything terrible to her. It was bad enough the kidnapper had put his filthy hands on her, but that was all that the man would do. He will find Wendy and the other women and the kidnappers would be thrown in jail quicker than Wendy fixed Black’s food.
That was a promise that he didn’t plan on breaking.
Chapter Six
“Ugh.” Wendy groaned when she finally awakened. “What…. What happened?” She said when she noticed the throbbing pain in her head. She tried to reach up and touch it, but she couldn’t move. “What is this?!” Wendy asked in horror once she realized she was tied up. The room was dark so she couldn’t see anything. After a while she finally remembered that someone had knocked her out.
“You’ve been captured.” A woman’s voice said and Wendy jumped. The woman’s voice was small and sounded sad. Wendy knew right away that this was one of the women who had been kidnapped.
“You must have been really popular if you were kidnapped.” Another woman said and Wendy blindly looked over to where the voice had come from.
“Not at all” Wendy said. She could be honest with these women. “I pretended to be a successful business woman because I was investigating your disappearance.” The two women gasped.
“You sound so young!” one of the women said. “How old are you young lady?” Her voice sounded gentle and almost motherly. At that moment Wendy wanted to cry.
“I’m eighteen.” She said and sniffled. She shook her head. She refused to cry because she needed to save these women.
“You’re incredibly brave for an eighteen year old, but you should have left it to the authorities.” Wendy was just about to say that she was a detective when the lights came on. Her eyes widened when she saw a man and a woman walking down the stairs. She didn’t recognize the man, but she knew the woman.
“Lisa? Is that you?!” She called out in horror. Keith’s stepmother was the last person that she was expecting to see. Lisa’s face contorted in a frown.
“That is Mrs. Johnson to you!” she said and turned towards the man. “Calvin. This isn’t a business woman; this is one of Keith’s snooty friends.” Wendy’s face burned at that insult. She couldn’t believe that Lisa had the gall to speak about her in that manner.
“Mrs. Johnson.” The man by the name of Calvin began. “This is the woman from the picture that you gave me. She looks a little different but she is the woman.” Lisa pouted and walked over to Wendy and pulled her hair so that she was looking Lisa directly in the eyes.
“What is the meaning of this? Why did you lie the other day and say that you were a business woman? Why were you in that outfit?” Lisa screamed at her in anger. The woman, who Wendy recognized as Latasha moved her chair so that she was facing Lisa.
“Do not speak to this child that way!” Latasha screamed and Lisa glared at her.
“I don’t think you realize who has all of the power here.” Lisa said with venom in her voice. “Don’t forget who can pull the plug on your life!” Latasha closed her mouth then, but that didn’t stop her from looking at her angrily. Lisa turned back to Wendy then. “I asked you a question?” Lisa said and pulled Wendy’s hair harder. It hurt her, but she refused to let Lisa see her in pain.
“I lied to draw the kidnapper out!” Wendy said gritting teeth. “And it looks to me that I accomplished my goal. Though I would have never believed the culprit was you!” Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks but her strong determination kept them in their place.
“Tsk… Tsk…” Lisa said and let go of Wendy’s hair. “Little girl,” she began. “I don’t know what type of game you were trying to play here, but this is the real world.” Lisa placed her hands on her hips. “You’re just as stupid as Keith.” Lisa said and Wendy’s face was full of rage.
“And you’re all the terrible things that he said you were!” Wendy screamed in fury. “You’re nothing and the two of you will be caught! Justice will be served!” Smack! Wendy’s face turned to the side when Lisa’s palm connected with it. She gasped and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes again. She wasn’t crying because she got hurt, she was crying because she wasn’t able to do anything about it because she was tied up.
“Move these two women into a different room.” Lisa commanded to the man by the name of Calvin. “I want this little girl here to know the true meaning of what can happen to her.” Calvin nodded his head and pulled out some duct tape. He taped up the women’s mouths and loosened the ropes so that they could get up.
“Scream and that’ll be the end of you two.” The women looked at the man in horror and nodded their heads. Lisa remained quiet once he ushered the two women up the stairs. She then turned back to look at Wendy.
“It’s a shame really; Keith seems to be his happiest when you’re together.” Lisa said and twirled one of Wendy’s curly locks in her hand. “I don’t care much for Keith, but his happiness affects my husband. Wendy’s face still stung from the blow but she wasn’t going to give Lisa the satisfaction of seeing her cry. “You know who I am though and I have to get rid of you. Sit here and think about that while I come up with a plan to do that.” Lisa grinned then and walked away from her.
“No!” Wendy screamed but Lisa never turned around to look at her. Lisa shut off the light then closed and locked the door. When she realized she was alone in that cold and dark basement, she finally allowed her tears to fall. “Black” She said wishing that Black would find her.
****
“I must be close. Her scent’s getting stronger.” Black said as he ran down a dark street that was filled with abandoned houses. The street would have been scary for a human to walk down alone at night, but not for Black. Since he was a cat, he knew that bad human beings wouldn’t bother him. After another few minutes running down the street, he came across a small house that looked abandoned as well. When he got a closer look at the house, he noticed that there was a light on.
“This has to be the house where they’ve taken Wendy.” Black’s black fur was hidden as he sped his way across the tall grass of the lawn. The kidnappers did a great job at picking this location. Most people would have a hard time actually finding this place. Good thing he wasn’t a person. He considered each and every possibility. Black stopped and looked at the dark SUV that was hidden behind a fallen down shack at the back of the house. He ran towards it and sniffed it.
“Wendy is definitely in here.” Black said when her familiar fragrance was pushed into his nose. He looked around to see if he could find an entrance to the house because he knew the kidnappers would have the house locked down and walking through the front door wasn’t an option. He looked all around the house until he found a hole in the bottom of the house. “It’ll be a tight fit, but it’ll do.” Black looked through the hole to see if he could see any light. The house was dark, but his advanced feline eyesigh
t made it easier for him to see.
“Here goes nothing.” Black said as he pressed his face into the hole. “Ugh!” he groaned once his head had gotten through. “I need to lay off on some of those treats Wendy gives me because this is ridiculous.” Black joked in order to ease the nerves regarding the situation that he was currently in. After many struggles, Black managed to squeeze his entire body through the hole in the house. “Finally” he said and looked around. He appeared to be in a basement and the house had the full vibe of being a place where people were brought when they were kidnapped.
“I need to hurry.” Black said and ran softly against the cold concrete floor. The longer he was down there, the more Black was able to pick up on Wendy’s scent and he was disgusted. Black was angry that the kidnappers had placed his lovely friend in such a dreadfully damp and cold basement. He’d make them pay for what they did to Wendy. When he rounded the corner he was surprised to hear a voice. He went closer to the voice and poked his head out. What he saw almost made his heart stop. There was a woman in front of Wendy with a knife to her throat!